Email Author Brian Smith

1999 Stories by Brian Smith

• Hotwired

  published December 30, 1999

  The No. 1-selling song of 1999 was Cher's "Believe." On her heels was TLC's summer smash "No Scrubs," and Monica's snoozer "Angel of Mine."... More >>

• Annual Retentive

  published December 23, 1999

  I have nothing against those softy-in-jeans journalist types who scurry to bended knee at the altar of, say, Fiona Apple and Built to Spill; I... More >>

• Crushed: We're an American Band

  published December 16, 1999

  Dreams unfulfilled/Graduate unskilled/It beats picking cotton/Waiting to be forgotten -- Replacements, "Bastards of Young" Crushed... More >>

• Cox Suckers

  published December 9, 1999

  The Independent Film Channel is, in my opinion, one of the most important new channels on television. In a world where more channels does not... More >>

• Cruising for Cops

  published December 2, 1999

  A kid limps up and offers his palm. He wears a black Misfits tour shirt and Marine fatigues, glittery combat boots and a teal-colored mess of... More >>

• Death of a DJ

  published November 25, 1999

  Wandering into the burrow of the unwell while making an enemy of the future and anyone who gives a damn. Turning the body to a toxic trash can.... More >>

• Texas Terri

  published November 18, 1999

  By somehow sidestepping cheap Wendy O. Williams connect-the-dot punk-rock jive, the black electrical tape over the shouter's nipples worked. The... More >>

• On Fire for Mariah

  published November 11, 1999

  When I am alone and doing it, I always think of Mariah Carey. Maybe thinking about Mariah Carey this much is not good. But I can't help it.... More >>

• Stage Dives

  published November 4, 1999

  Sure, no contemporary Phoenix "rock" venue can even hold a dusty seven-inch to beat dives like The Star Club and three-decades-ago bands like The... More >>

• Wayne's World

  published October 28, 1999

  "Flying through the air with the greatest of ease!" the thrash-voiced singer crows as a pair of cherry-colored panties floats onto the Coliseum... More >>

• Cut Across Shorty's

  published October 14, 1999

  Crack and tweak are all that matter to Kim. Everything else is just part of the plot to procure it. Only through a combined sense of panic and... More >>

• Can Artist

  published October 7, 1999

  "Man, that odor can be foul, you just can't believe," laughs 84-year-old John Myrick, who should know. The Southern-born gent has been... More >>

• Washed Out

  published September 30, 1999

  The delayed monsoon pissed down for a good 20 minutes. It was just enough rain and whipping wind to nettle the hundreds who had set aside this... More >>

• Radio Ga Ga

  published September 23, 1999

  In the early Sixties, long before words like radical and counterculture would become bland marketing doublespeak for rap groups and chain stores,... More >>

• Still Loca After All These Years

  published September 16, 1999

  Beneath swirling lights and a disco ball, cowboy hats tower over the other heads. Mocha-colored young women in up-to-the-moment attire throw... More >>

• End of the Century

  published September 16, 1999

  The year is 1978. Son of Sam gets life, the Pistols lose theirs and John Lennon still has his. Sandinista guerrillas attempt to extricate... More >>

• Black Magic

  published August 26, 1999

  La Potencias Africanas (The African Potencies) is housed in a small cinder-block building on East Van Buren. On the building's outer east wall... More >>

• Cave Creek Dahl

  published August 26, 1999

  The desert surrounding Jeff Dahl's Cave Creek home is lush, made fragrant and green from recent monsoon thrashings. His neighbors on the next... More >>

• Death of a Diner

  published August 19, 1999

  2 EGGS 2 PANCAKES 2 PC. BACON or SAUSAGE $2.95 reads the colorfully hand-scribed sign in the front window of the 42-year-old diner. A few feet to... More >>

• The Ozzfest Project

  published August 12, 1999

  It is a smoggy evening at the Burbank Airport, and Carlos Gonzales of Mesa is explaining his documentary film, the one he is making by himself... More >>

• Uncover Girl

  published August 5, 1999

  So what would it be like to cab around the city with a record-company weasel, a couple of writers, a punk-rock singer, a porn-PR pro and an... More >>

• Recordings

  published August 5, 1999

  Ween Paintin' the Town Brown (Elektra) Paintin' the Town Brown, the most recent offering from demented... More >>

• Well-Healed

  published July 29, 1999

  "Another man said one time Elvis Presley is the biggest thing that ever happened," the Reverend Leroy Jenkins says. "No, he wasn't, Jesus was.... More >>

• Everybody Get Up!

  published July 29, 1999

  "Hum to me baby," croons Glory Revival singer/guitarist Paul Lamb from the stage of Nita's Hideaway as the spry seven-piece band slides down into... More >>

• Car Hopped

  published July 22, 1999

  Sun-singed and bullshit-sated, we crisscross the acres of car lot in search of a particular auto that may only exist as fiction in the head of the... More >>